


The Downside of Having a Mind Palace

by Fairylights_and_Stormynights



Category: Sherlock (TV)
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Demisexual Sherlock, Established Sherlock Holmes/John Watson, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Hurt Sherlock, Light Angst, M/M, Mind Palace, Sherlock-centric, Temporary Amnesia
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-06
Updated: 2017-07-06
Packaged: 2018-11-28 11:49:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,938
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11417346
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fairylights_and_Stormynights/pseuds/Fairylights_and_Stormynights
Summary: During a case away from John, Sherlock accidentally deletes all memories of his boyfriend and flatmate. At least Mycroft is useful for something.





	The Downside of Having a Mind Palace

Sherlock walked through the halls of his mind palace. Every door and every room were familiar and well trodden. He was working a case for Mycroft, something that his elder brother had probably already solved but hadn’t bothered to fix and just threw Sherlock at the mystery. As a result, Sherlock had been dragged to Kent to figure out a murder that was painfully obvious once you looked at the crime scene and the suspects. He would’ve rather stayed in London even if there were no killers to catch. He could be with John then. 

Barely two months ago, John had snapped and kissed Sherlock to shut him up about all the different types of tobacco ash and how it was essential information. One thing lead to another and they had finally reached the title of ‘boyfriends’ and were talking about giving the second bedroom back to Mrs Hudson. But instead, he was in Kent, bored out of his mind and missing his boyfriend although he would never admit to it.

The case had been painfully simple and it had taken Sherlock barely a day to figure it out. He was now spending the remaining time in Kent to clean his mind palace up a bit. He was working on deleting all the extra tedious knowledge on the daytime TV shows that John had him watch. He loved his boyfriend but he almost drew the line when John asked him to watch those shows, only consenting when John gave him puppy eyes. He agreed to watch them but planned on deleting them all later.

He opened John’s room to extract the nonsense that he had been forced to watch. As usual, John’s room in his mind palace was the warmest and most comforting. Redbeard had taken to spending most of his time in there and the room always smelled of John and gave Sherlock the feeling he always felt when John complimented him of kissed him. The feeling of elation and the feeling that he could fly. Recently he didn’t even have to be in John’s room to feel that. He just had to be around John or be thinking of John in some small way to feel elated. And because his mind worked on several different levels, he was always thinking of John in some way.

The moment he had found the information he wanted to delete, his phone went off with a text. Mycroft no doubt want him to check in about the case. Sherlock didn’t know why he bothered considering texting since he had no doubt knew from the moment Sherlock announced who the murder was. (It was the sister, she had said she was walking on the beach but her shoes were caked with mud not sand and she had left traces of nail polish on the body).

Sherlock raised himself out of his mind palace and at the same time, deleted the useless knowledge that John had made him watch. But he only realised his mistake as he left his mind palace. It wasn’t the daytime TV he had deleted but John himself. As he left his mind palace Sherlock tried to desperately grab at the fading memories of John as they moved into the part of his mind palace where he kept the information he didn’t need to remember went. 

When he was fully out of his mind palace, Sherlock could barely remember what he deleted. All he had left was the faint imprint of a blonde man saying things like ‘Fantastic,’ and ‘Amazing,’ and the gleam of a smile. He also felt strangely empty and almost sad. Sherlock shook off the feeling looked at the text and pulled on his coat. For whatever reason his brother wanted him to check in with him before he went back to 221b. He was momentarily confused about how he was living in that flat. But he dismissed that thought, he must have somehow gotten a flatmate, for now, he was focused on whatever his brother wanted, however tedious it might be.

\----------

As the car pulled up to St James’s Palace he was still annoyed about the fact that he had no recall of whatever flatmate he had managed to attract and who the mystery man with the blonde hair was in his memories. As he walked to the office his brother had probably taken over for this very meeting, he pulled up the mask he always had on when around Mycroft and mentally though up all the ways he could insult his elder brother. 

Sherlock had barely walked into the office before Mycroft was straight to business.

“Well then Brother mine, I assume the case has been solved?”Mycroft acted as if he didn’t already know and it irritated Sherlock to no end that his brother even acted as if there was a chance that Sherlock might not have solved the case.

“Yes of course I have, but next time get me a more interesting case before setting me on it. Maybe a serial killer I like those best.” Sherlock had tried to hide the annoyance at his brother but some of it seeped into his words and from the look on Mycroft’s face, it was obvious. 

“Yes well, I thought it might be a nice way to stretch your legs. Perhaps next time I will let the police try figure out the murder on their own since you seem so bored with a case that would have eluded them for months.” Mycroft sneered in such a pronounced way that Sherlock could tell at least half of it was put on.   
“anyway,” Mycroft went on changing the subject,”I only called you back so early because Doctor Watson was getting antsy and it seemed if we let him alone too long he might try to after you.”

Doctor Watson. The name seemed significant to Sherlock and he didn’t know why. He ran a search through all names in his mind palace but none seemed to match. As much as he hated letting his brother know he knew more than him, Sherlock’s thirst for knowledge was killing him. 

“Who?” Sherlock’s tone implied he couldn’t care less who this ‘Doctor Watson’ fellow was but he dropped it when he saw the look of horror cross his brothers face. 

“Doctor Watson,” Mycroft repeated, he seemed dumbfounded and the look of disgust and the sneer dropped from his face when he saw the lack of recognition in his younger brother’s eyes.  
“Ex-army doctor, shot in Afghanistan and brought back with a psychosomatic limp, has an alcoholic sister named Harry?” The words seemed like a question to Sherlock more than anything. Mycroft, however, seemed to be working his way into worry and maybe even hysteria.  
“Your flatmate and blogger? Your boyfriend?” That caught Sherlock’s attention.

“My what?” 

“Boyfriend,” Mycroft had regained his composer but there was still a pained look in his eyes. 

“Mycroft, as we both know, I’m Demisexual. I highly doubt that anyone has stuck around me for long enough for attraction to form at both ends.” As he was saying the words they felt wrong and tasted funny in his mouth but he continued, “As for Doctor Watson he can’t be that important or I would have remembered him.”

“Sherlock,” Mycroft’s voice was quiet and calm. “When was the last time you deleted anything from your mind palace?” The question was calm and innocent but the implication behind it was not.

“Just before you texted me why?” Then the thought hit. It occurred to him that it shouldn't have taken so long. Sherlock gave his brother a look and retreated into his mind palace. 

The walls near the room that kept the deleted information were bare of paint and the door was grubby and peeling. Sherlock readied himself for all he was going to unleash and opened the door and let himself remember.

Surprisingly, John was not the first thing to hit him. Instead, it was the vastness of space and all of the astronomy that he had deleted over the years. All the knowledge of supernovas and black holes and planets. And integrated into those thoughts was John. How fitting, Sherlock mused as the flood of galaxies and milky ways ploughed back into his brain. That John is mixed in with the stars and suns that are pale in comparison to him. That John comes back mixed with universes and galaxies because that's what he is to me. And Sherlock could feel the elation seeping back into his bones. 

When it had all come flooding back in and Sherlock had left his mind palace. He stood abruptly and walked out of Mycroft’s office. If Mycroft found this unsettling or annoying he didn’t object and when he got a text from Sherlock, no doubt in a cab on his way back the flat thanking him for reminding him of John and insulting him and his inability to stick to a diet, he allowed himself a rare moment of emotion. 

\-----------

The flat was dark when Sherlock got back. John had fallen asleep in his chair and the only light in the room was the lamp beside him, basking John in a halo of light. Sherlock stopped for a minute and took in his boyfriend. Took in the man he almost forgot. Sherlock then crossed the room in three great strides and bent down to hug his boyfriend and press light kisses into his skin. John woke up almost immediately after Sherlock’s lips had brushed his own and sleepily pulled his boyfriend into a tired and lazy kiss. 

Even after the kiss was broken, Sherlock still clung to the smaller man. Afraid that if he let go he would be in danger of forgetting him again. 

“Whats brought this on then?” John asked through a yawn, blinking away the sleep from his eyes and gazing up at Sherlock. Even with Sherlock practically on his knees, he was taller than him and from this angle, John could see the worry and sadness in Sherlock’s face.   
“What is it, love?”

“I almost lost you,” Sherlock was whispering and he never dropped his gaze from John. His eyes trailing over his body and face, memorising and re-memorizing every line and every muscle. He looked at John as if he was a famous work of art or a movie star instead of a retired army doctor.

“You never lost me, I was right here.” John was smiling but he was also looking at Sherlock through his trained medical eye. Had Sherlock been hurt on the case?

“I forgot you and that's just as bad.” Sherlock’s voice cracked when he said those words. Realising that if he hadn’t fixed it so soon. He might have forgotten the thing most precious to him. Or he might have hurt John when he had come home and had no recollection of their adventures together and no memory of their relationship.

“Love, If you ever forget me, I’ll make you remember. I love you and I’m never going to let you go.” The words were so meaningful but John was falling asleep as he said them. Sherlock let a rare smile shine on his boyfriend and then carried him off to his bedroom, John more hindering than helping their travel. 

He helped John into bed and pulled the covers over both of them. He was an insomniac and didn’t even feel tired but he wanted to stay in John's presence for as long a possible. And for that night he stayed in bed and just watched John sleep. Wishing and hoping he would never forget this man.

**Author's Note:**

> I based this off/ took this prompt after a tumblr post prompting Sherlock deleting John.


End file.
